Miklus Tourney helps young golfers get in the swing

By Susan Silvers, STAFF WRITER

Published 1:32 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

TRUMBULL -- A first date is usually a movie or dinner.

When the late Donald Miklus, Westport's longtime finance director, met his wife, Kristine, he had a different idea -- a visit to the Tashua Knolls Golf Course, where he showed her his name on the plaque honoring his role as a member of the original building committee.

It was an amusing, but certainly prophetic, indication of the life she would have over the next 25 years.

"I wasn't a golf widow -- I was a golf-course widow," joked Miklus, recalling her husband's devotion to improving local facilities for golf and encouraging others to learn the game.

The only thing that could tear Miklus away from his beloved golf course, and membership on the Golf Commission, was his death in February of last year at the age of 67.

In the aftermath of his sudden passing, the commission has decided that no mere plaque is enough.

It has plans to honor Miklus, its longtime finance chairman, by turning a former cart barn by the 10th tee at Tashua into a learning center that eventually will be open year-round as a tribute to his dedication, with classrooms, hitting stations and even simulators.

"All these things will happen as we get the necessary funds," Thomas Galla, the current commission chairman, said of the ambitious agenda.

He isn't certain how much the full development would require, but said grants could possibly help fund the effort. "The more we make, the better the facility will be sooner," he said.

The project gets a boost Aug. 3 with the 2nd annual Don Miklus Golf Tournament, a day-into-evening event whose proceeds of $175 per golfer go to the junior golf program such as scholarships and the learning center.

The event is being overseen by the Miklus Foundation, being established as a tax-exempt organization to raise funds for the center.

"Don believed that children should learn how to play golf," said Kristine Miklus, who explained that he thought the etiquette, rules and regulations of the game serve youngsters throughout their lives, in addition to giving them a recreational outlet. She said his own father started him as little more than a tot in Fairfield, and that he had started initiating his own first son at the age of 5.

And if they learn anything about Miklus, they'll learn that he was a man of amazing persistence.

For 20 years, he shepherded the development of the town's second golf course, through both legal and engineering challenges.

Under the rules of the Miklus tournament, four paying adults are joined by a junior golfer ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old, who participates for free.

Course General Manager Bobby Brown said Tashua's youth program had about 400 participants last year, 25 to 30 percent of whom were girls.

Basic instructional programs serve those as young as 4 years old and on-course programs are designed for those as young as 7.

Not all of the participants are from Trumbull.

Brendan Wilenski from Monroe was practicing putting one recent day, explaining that he had just started to learn the game. "My parents got me clubs," he said.

But Peter Radzwillas, 13, said he's already learned to appreciate the game's benefits. "It's fun and relaxing," he said.

He said he thought the new learning center was a terrific idea. "At most country clubs, they have something like that," he said.

The Aug. 3 event will begin with registration at 10 a.m., when participants can practice at the driving range or attend a full swing clinic given by Brown, a PGA pro.

The lunch will be followed by a shotgun start at noon, and conclude with a cocktail hour and 6 p.m. dinner. About 72 paying golfers have signed on so far, with a target of getting 120.

For the Miklus family, the event will be something of a reunion, bringing together the four Miklus children and six grandchildren in for the occasion. Fittingly, the oldest grandson is now old enough to participate in the tourney.